


Five times Erik met Tony Stark

by SeleneJessabelle12626



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: 5+1 Things, And there is also 1 time, Erik Lives AU, Gen, Golden Jaguar Erik, Not really a 5+1, Protective Erik, So technically it is 5+1, There are 5 times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 14:02:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13812693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeleneJessabelle12626/pseuds/SeleneJessabelle12626
Summary: Five times Erik 'Killmonger' Stevens meets Tony Stark and the one time Tony Stark meets Erik Stevens.





	Five times Erik met Tony Stark

**Author's Note:**

> My own take on the Erik lives AU. More of a character study than a story with an actual plot. I don't really know what this is tbh.

“Who’s this?” Iron-Man asks of T’Challa as they stand facing each other in a side alley in LA.

“An associate.” T’Challa replies calmly.

 _“Associate!”_ Erik mutters to Shuri in amused Xhosa, knowing T’Challa’s earpiece would pick up on it as well. On the other side Shuri chuckles but T’Challa remains silent.

“Right.” Iron Man says, sounding like he doesn’t believe it.

‘I’m not some sidekick like your copycat’ Erik wants to argue. He’s T’Challa’s equal in strength and ability, the protector of Wakanda when her king is away. He is the protector of the King on missions like this. He’s the Golden Jaguar, the foil to the Black Panther.

“Why are you here Mr. Stark?” T’Challa asks, and Erik can almost picture the frown on the billionaires face behind his mask.

“Saw you were in town, figured I’d swing by and see what was new.” He says, though they all know he means something closer to ‘Wanted to investigate what you were doing in my country without my knowledge’.

“Wakandan business.” T’Challa again replies simply. They’d it discussed the moment Shuri had picked up Stark on the scanners, this wasn’t his problem. They’d find the thief and his buyer themselves without help from the Avengers.

 _“The longer we wait here, the harder it’ll be to find him again.”_ Erik says to T’Challa.

 _“He’s right, stop chatting up Stark and get going.”_ Shuri agrees.

 _“Go, I’ll worry about Stark.”_ T’Challa says after a moment of deliberation and the simple phrase nearly knocks Erik from his feet. This was the first time Erik had been allowed to take the suit out of Wakanda and away from the supervision of the Dora Milaje.

 _“What? Alone?”_ Shuri questions, surely as confused as Erik himself. They all knew she could and was already tracking them with the communicators and their Kimoyo beads. That technically his beads were still set up to give him a debilitating shock the moment Shuri pressed the button. It hadn’t been used in nearly a year but it still worked.

 _“I trust you can bring him back to the ship, alive.”_ T’Challa said, but before Erik could reply Stark spoke up again breaking what he thought was silence.

“Look just tell me why you’re in the US dressed like that instead of a King and we can both get back to what we were doing.”

 _“I found him.”_ Shuri said and Erik looked to T’Challa.

The King nodded slightly and with a feline grin, Erik leapt towards the roof of the building they were next to.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about Stark.” He heard T’Challa assuring the American over the whine of the Iron-Man suits lasers, before he tuned out the simplified explanation T’Challa was giving him to make him stand down.

“Starks not happy but he’s letting us worry about for now.” Shuri informed him as leapt from building to building in a black and gold blur. “T’Challa is taking a different route but will rendezvous with you at the target.

“You got your finger on the button don’t you?” He asked.

“I think it’s clear by now that you aren’t going to try and kill my brother.”

“You sure about that kid?”

“Yes. I am.”

Erik glanced up to see the Iron-Man suit flying above him. He shook his head before boosting off presumably back towards his own business.

“Didn’t even offer me a ride.”

“Target is in the red sedan headed east.” Shuri says, filling his right eyepiece with a map of the area.

“I see him.”

Together he and T’Challa converged on the car and took it out and despite his suit being peppered by bullets, Erik didn’t find himself instinctually finding kill points or turning on T’Challa in adrenaline fueled fury. That is how Erik remembers the first time he met Iron-Man.

~

Things go much different the second time he meets Iron-Man. He’s alone this time on the border of Wakanda.

 _“T’Challa and W’Kabi are on their way. Keep him occupied.”_ Shuri instructs, having received the notice on her systems the moment something unexpected entered their airspace.

“You speak English?” Stark asks, landing in front of him.

“You got an invite with the King?” Erik asks, knowing he doesn’t sound anything like when T’Challa or Shuri or any native Wakandan speaks English. His accent is all American.

“This is above your head kid, I’m here on business for the UN. Above your pay grade.” Stark says and Erik scoffs.

“If it’s about outsiders coming into Wakanda, it’s exactly my pay grade. You ain’t welcome here unannounced. None of y’all are.”

“Who are you anyway? T’Challa have a brother he didn’t mention? Long-lost twin?”

“Man you don’t know the half of it.”

 _“What are you doing?”_ Shuri hisses in his ear.

“Stalling.” There was a soft hum in his ear and then T’Challa’s spoke up on his earpiece.

_“N’Jadaka, what is he doing here?”_

_“Hadn’t gotten that far._ Yo colonizer, what you doing here anyway?”

 _“Smooth”_ Shuri comments.

“Colonizer? You know what whatever. I’m going to the palace. Give T’Challa the heads up.” His armor began to warm and he started to hover above the ground.

Erik pulled his weapons in response, the half spear and short sword fitting comfortably in his hands. This got Stark’s attention.

“Who are you supposed to be anyway? He’s the King of Wakanda, the Black Panther, yada yada and you are what? Duke of lions or something?”

Erik barely held back a snarl at the disrespect. “I’ll knock you out of the sky and rip that armor from your body!”

 _“N’Jadaka!”_ Both royal siblings reprimanded at once. But he barely heard it over the whine of Iron-Man’s gauntlet.

“Try it tin can! You know my tech is better! Your weapons won’t do shit against me!”

The landing of T’Challa’s ship and the thundering of W’Kabi’s rhino interrupted Iron-Man.

“You might want to leash your guard cat.” Stark says as T’Challa exits the ship, dressed in his normal clothes but with the Black Panther necklace draped across his collarbones. Erik takes an aggressive step towards Stark but T’Challa’s hand on his shoulder stops him.

 _“He’s trying to rile you up. We can take it from here, go calm down.”_ T’Challa says, with no hint of anger. He knows that Erik is quick to anger, especially when provoked. It’s why he made a good border guard but also why some of Wakanda still didn’t trust him.

 _“I think I’ll stay, I want to know what he wants after all this.”_ Erik says, fists unclenching and claws retracting.

“Why have you come?” T’Challa says looking to Stark.

“Word on the street is that you have someone I’m looking for.”

 _“Bucky!”_ Shuri realizes in an instant, her com clicking off as she presumably leaves to go check on her charge.

“Where is Barnes?”

~

The third time Erik meets Iron-Man, he meets Tony Stark.

He was accompanying T’Challa to a UN meeting as his security. Okoye had been injured and was still recovering, leaving the rest of the Dora Milaje to protect Wakanda and Erik to go with the King as his guard. It was somewhat risky considering who he used to be to the US Government but he was banking on the fact that his group had been so secret that no one in attendance at the meeting would even know who he was.

He was the first to spot a familiar face. _“Stark is here.”_ He told T’Challa quietly, eyes not leaving the billionaire across the room.

 _“Representing the Avengers no doubt.”_ T’Challa replied coolly.

His eyes met Stark’s and the billionaire started to walk over to them. “King T’Challa, pleasure to see you again.” Stark greeted, though his voice had a tone to it that suggested it wasn’t quite the pleasure he said it was. He shook T’Challa’s hand before looking to Erik. “Now if I had to guess seeing as scary bald lady isn’t here, you must be the angry kitten.”

“Okoye had other business to attend to. I invited N’Jadaka to take her place for this meeting.” T’Challa offered before Erik could speak up for himself.

“You never told me last time kid, who are you?” Stark asked, looking to Erik.

“None of your business white boy.” He said and he didn’t even have to look to see the unamused side-eye T’Challa was giving him.

“Right, well I guess you're not completely wrong . T’Challa, kitten.” Stark said by way of goodbye before heading in to the chamber to find his seat.

“Ya know, when I took you up on your offer, I never thought I’d end up schmoozing with colonizing assholes themselves.” Erik said, looking around the room and seeing far too few people of his own skin tone than would be to his liking.

“We are here to represent Wakanda and share our achievements with the world. We are not here to start fights. If you cannot contain your anger then I will go in alone.” T’Challa said, the closest he’d sounded to angry since Shuri had suggested Erik take Okoye’s place.

“Nah I wanna see their faces when you show off your K-beads.” Erik said with a smirk. “I’ll be good, scout’s honor.”

The only response he got was a small, bemused sigh before they too went to find their seats.

~

The fourth time Erik meets Iron-Man he meets the rest of the Avengers.

“If it isn’t T’Challa’s guard kitten. Come to keep me busy until your King shows up?” Iron-Man asks, hovering out of Erik’s reach. War Machine flanked him on one side and Vision on the other. Erik didn’t recognize the kid in the spider themed onesie but he knew who Black Widow was, every Black Ops soldier knew who she was. Or at least stories of what she had done.

“I’m just doing my job man. If you wanted to come into Wakanda without a problem, you really should just give the King a heads up. Now we have to do this whole waiting game while they worry what y’all might want with us.” He said, pulling his spear from his back and gripping it loosely.

“You know why we’re here N’Jadaka.” Stark says.

“You don’t get to call me that. That’s a name that belongs to my people. You ain’t my people.”

His enhanced senses let him hear the pounding of hooves before the others. W’Kabi and the border tribe come to back him up. There had a surprising lack of worry when he’d been tasked with working with the border tribe. All of Wakanda knew how he’d turned them against their country so easily. But Wakanda had been a forgiving place, as had her people. He wore a mantle now, had a purpose to fight for. The world out beyond these borders was rough but it would take time and careful planning to make it better, he saw that now. In the year he’d been here he’d seen the leaps and bounds T’Challa was taking to help their brothers and sisters outside of Africa.

 _“N’Jadaka, the Princess has finished her task. The King has sent word that we are to escort the outsiders to the palace to meet with him and the Queen Mother.”_ W’Kabi said, eyes on outsiders.

_“He sure about this?”_

W’Kabi nodded and Erik sighed but said _“Not my call to make.”_ Before looking to Stark “You want to see the King, it’ll be as people not as heroes.” He let his own mask melt back into the necklace.

“Have it your way Kitten.” Stark said, landing on the grass, face plate lifting away from his mask. The others looked at Stark in what seemed like worry but a few minutes later they were in the Wakanda ship that Erik had flown out to the border, all in civilian clothes.

While he flew the ship Erik tapped his Kimoyo bead to call T’Challa. _“I hope you know what you’re doing cause I have a ship full of outsiders and they don’t seem happy.”_

 _“Don’t you trust me by now N’Jadaka?”_ T’challa said good-naturedly.

_“Course I do, cuz. Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”_

~

The fifth time he meets Iron-Man, he isn’t an unknown enemy anymore.

Erik had been out with Shuri, visiting Barnes and the river tribe. Of the tribes of Wakanda, the river tribe was the most accepting of outsiders. Thus they had been given the task of watching over Sergeant Barnes (“Call me Bucky”) and where Erik had a hut of his own. Of course he had rooms in the palace same as Shuri and T’Challa, despite everything he was still technically part of the royal family.

Their late afternoon meal was interrupted by the shrill beeping of Shuri’s Kimoyo beads, but their warning came too late.

 _“Outsider!”_ The voices of the children and the adults alike warned of their visitor.

Erik was on his feet in an instant

“Go, hide. I’ll worry about this.”

Tony Stark walked out from behind the hut before Bucky could argue further.

“I was worried when you weren’t there to greet me Kitten.” He said with a smirk. To which Erik replied with his suit washing over his body but left his head free, the jaguar claws around his neck glinting in the late afternoon sun.

“I thought I told you to make an appointment white boy. Can’t have you sneaking round Wakanda like some kinda snake.”

“Shouldn’t have made it so easy for me to sneak in.”

“I didn’t.” Shuri spat from her position behind Erik and next to Bucky.

“I’ll admit your highness, it wasn’t easy figuring out how to bypass all your sensors. And to have them around the entire country, wow. It just makes me look stupid. But Sergeant Barnes is coming with me under the authority of the United Nations and the Sokovia accords.”

“Yeah they ain’t got power here. Wakanda’s got her own laws and under those, he’s protected. So unless you wanna start an international incident, you’d best leave.”

“Look I don’t want to have to do this anymore than you do. He’s a fugitive. I tried asking nice. I tried playing nice. I tried to ask your government nicely. But you left me no choice. If you don’t hand over Barnes I have authorization to use force.”

 _“Can you believe this colonizer?”_ Erik said with a smirk, his eyes not leaving Stark but speaking directly to Shuri. He saw the way Stark frowned when he switched to Xhosa. White boys like him liked to be in the know and at this point even Bucky knew enough Xhosa to hold a conversation. Bucky had been in Wakanda longer than even Erik had, Bucky was just as much Wakanda as the tribe he lived with, despite the color of his skin. Stark was very much not.

 _“Can you hold him off long enough for T’Challa to get here with the Dora Milaje?”_ Shuri asked, though her expression and tone made it sound like a mocking taunt.

“Ok, really, are you going to be childish about this?” Stark said, buying the bait without much issue.

_“Maybe, doesn’t look like he’s got his suit.”_

_“If he did, we would have known he was here. Part of the border sensors.”_

_“They went off though. His suit is nearby.”_ Bucky chimed in.

“You know what, I’m not putting up with this, last chance. Hand him over.” Stark said, arms crossed over his chest. Erik spotted his fingers moving though, twitching and moving like he was typing, calling in backup.

“Already told you, it’s not happening.”

A rocket burst out of the forest, landing neatly behind Stark and opening up to reveal the Iron-Man suit. It practically jumped onto Stark and in an instant, Erik’s mask is on and his weapons were in his hands.

It’s all a blur after that. Instincts granted by the heart-shaped herb taking over to keep Iron-Man at bay while Shuri and Bucky evacuate the village. Shuri calls to him that T’Challa is on his way but it isn’t until he’s knocked out of the way of a laser by the Black Panther that he realizes what she’d said.

T’Challa had never been one for talk during a fight and that didn’t change now, but the two of them were connected and their instincts from the same source. Bast protected her people and country through the Black Panther and now the Golden Jaguar. The fight was over quickly once he had T’Challa backing him up. Stark backing off when he realized he was outmatched. T’Challa had told Erik of the incident with Captain America and Iron-Man so maybe this time Stark had learned his lesson about when he was beat.

He flew off with a warning about Barnes being an international fugitive and then it was like nothing had ever happened. The village was calm and the humming of insects fill the night air. Ever since he’d come to Wakanda, Erik had tried to watch every sunset. Stark had made him miss one, another reason to hate the guy.

~

Tony Stark meets Erik Stevens at a talk Princess Shuri is giving about Wakandan technology. 

Peter is entranced with what the Princess is saying, sitting on the edge of his seat and scribbling notes on his phone but Tony, his eyes are on the figure just off the side of the stage. It’s not T’Challa like he would have figured; the King isn’t present at this particular event. Nor is it one of the bald women warriors. Instead, N’Jadaka has accompanied the Princess to this event.

Shuri is projecting a hologram from the bracelet on her wrist, Kimoyo beads she had called them, showing a blueprint of the building they are in now. She moves it around and manipulates the lines to spread them apart and give a full view of each part of the building, swiping to different levels and maps of the wiring and plumbing, the whole thing is an engineers wet-dream.

Despite having met the guy five separate times in several different places and for several different reasons, the extent of what he knows about the man is limited. He knows he’s at least partially Wakandan. Has his own version of T’Challa’s Black Panther suit in gold, which they call the Golden Jaguar. He’s got the skills of the Black Panther, whether they are associated with the suit or some external source, Tony’s still not quite sure. His name is N’Jadaka but he only lets the Wakandans call him by it, meaning he has another name. He was easy to rile up and make angry but seemed to know that himself. He’s got the textbook makings of a bad guy, so why is he fighting for Wakanda and its royal family?

Deciding it’s finally time for some answers, at the intermission of the talk he opens up his database interface on his phone and searches ‘N’Jadaka’. He gets far fewer results than he’d hoped.

“I’m going to go try and talk to Shuri.” Peter tells him and Tony waves him off with a nod. He spends the rest of the intermission skimming article after article looking for any mention of a man named N’Jadaka in relation to Wakanda but finds none. When the break is over and they find their seats again, Peter has a small silvery-gray orb in his hand.

“Where’d you get that?” Tony asks curiously.

“Oh, Shuri let me borrow one of Erik’s Kimoyo beads. She needs all hers but a couple of his aren’t connected to anything so”

“Wait who’s Erik?”

“Uh her cousin? He came with her because her brother had royal stuff to do at home.” Shuri came back on the stage and began to speak about the way the Kimoyo beads interfaced with the rest of the technology they used at home, it was interesting but Tony’s focus was still elsewhere. N’Jadaka, Erik, stretched his arms above his head, the gold necklace hidden under his shirt catching the light as the edge peaked over his collar. It got Tony’s attention and he saw the scars littering the man’s body. Hundreds of raised dots covering what looked to be every inch of his exposed stomach and continuing up under his shirt.

Discretely into his watch Tony typed “Erik Scars” thousands of results came up but one caught his eye. An FBI file on a man named Erik Stevens, alias Killmonger.

“Be right back.” Tony told Peter, but the boy was too engrossed in the Princess to really notice.

“Fri, summarize this for me.” Tony requested once he was alone in the lobby of the building.

“Erik Stevens, also known under the alias Killmonger was an American Black Operative specializing in the dismantling of governments and assassinations. He had over two hundred confirmed kills before disappearing after an operation in Northern Africa. He was known to scar ritually for each kill he achieved, earning the name Killmonger for the amount of deaths attributed to him. He reappeared about two years ago when he was involved in a burglary and homicide at the British Museum. After which he disappeared once more. Status: Missing”

“I think I know where you’ve been hiding Kitten.” Tony said to himself with a smirk before searching for Steven’s personal files.

“I’m going to go talk more with Shuri and give her the bead back. I’ll be back.” Peter said, standing from his chair when Shuri finished her talk.

“I have some of my own questions, lead the way kid.”

“Stark.” Erik greeted with a gold tipped smirk as Shuri and Peter launched into an in-depth talk about the Kimoyo beads and their uses.

“Stevens.” Tony replied casually, internally smirking when Erik’s smirk fell to a frown.

 _“Umfana omhlophe uyazi”_ The Xhosa spilled easily from Erik’s lips but the smooth accent that Shuri and her brother had was far from there. It showed that the language of Wakanda wasn’t his first language.

Shuri glanced over to Erik and looked unsure for a moment before giving Tony a knowing smile. “Mr. Stark I’m sure you had some questions.”

“Oh yeah, the beads are really cool, great potential, lots of uses, you guys are doing great. But what i’m more interested in is how an American Black Ops agent specializing in dismantling governments managed to become so trusted by the Wakandan royal family to be the protector of their borders and given a superpowered catsuit?”

“Weapons dealer turned superhero. Not sure you have any place to talk Stark.” Erik replied. “You made a choice after your heart got fucked didn’t you? No more weapons and Stark Industries would focus on tech instead? I made my choice with my own reasons. So unless you got a problem with that imma keep my story to myself. We ain’t all gotta have a press conference to tell the world who we are. _Masihambe udade._ ”

“I’ll text you my contact info Peter. Send me the specs for your suit and I’ll see what I can do to improve it.” Shuri said but didn’t argue when Erik wanted to leave, she could see the way his nails were digging into his hands as though he wanted them to be claws.

“Now we're even Kitten.” Tony called after the Wakandans with a smirk. He was lucky he had gotten out of that encounter without so much as a scratch from a Vibranium claw.

“Uh, what just happened?” Peter asked.

“Don’t worry about kid, c’mon lets get you back. May’ll be worried and you have a Princess to talk to.”


End file.
